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Ebony Comedies Studios (Chicago, Illinois)

USA / Illinois / Chicago / Chicago, Illinois
 film/video production studio/facility, historical layer / disappeared object
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North California Ave. at the dead end of West Medill Ave., Chicago
Active 1915-1919

Located in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, Ebony Comedies was one of the country's leading producers of what was known, at the time, as "race movies." It opened its doors in 1915 as Historical Feature Film Company. Because the company was owned by white men, which was common for “race movie” companies of the era. However, the films themselves had all black directors, writers, and casts. The movies were filled with every Negro stereotype known in an effort to appeal to white audiences as well as black.

After the 1916 release of D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation," which caused the resurrection of the KKK, the black community turned on them and their reputations suffered. If an effort to stay viable, in 1917 the white owners hired two black men to run the company for them and changed its name. African American producer Luther J. Pollard was taken on as a partner and acted as the company president. His brother, Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Pollard, was the talent scout. Fritz would later become a professional quarterback and the first black professional football coach.

Another of the stock players was Sam Robinson, brother of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson. Pollard’s goal was to produce comedies that showed Negroes in dignified comedy roles without any of the “chicken stealing and watermelon eating.” Their films are considered by historians to be historically significant representation of black entertainment of the era.
However, the company’s reputation was too far gone for the company to survive. The old films were released with the new company name and though white audiences loved them, black audiences were still outraged. The new pictures did not live up to the standard that Pollard envisioned, and the Chicago black press called for a boycott.
In 1919 the doors closed.

Between 1915 and 1919 they produced approximately 30 films.

streamline.filmstruck.com/2014/07/03/if-i-were-offering...
normanstudios.org/blog/2017/01/17/the-rise-and-fall-of-...
lutherjpollard.blogspot.com/
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   41°55'26"N   87°41'52"W
  •  23 km
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This article was last modified 6 years ago